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Subscribe to RSSMore than 400 residences in Staten Island still don't have electricity because their homes are too damaged, and many are taking refuge in warming tents. NBC's Katy Tur reports.
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Dee and Scott McGrath were huddled under two blankets, both wearing hooded sweatshirts and pants, with an electric heater by their bed. Dee heard her daughter coughing through the night from the room next door and feared she was getting sick.
Though they’d tried to cover up the open gaps between the wood on the first floor of their gutted home, which was inundated by 11 feet of water during Hurricane Sandy, the chill of a deep freeze sweeping New York was seeping in. Downstairs, it was just under 20 degrees. Upstairs, where they’ve restored heat, it was only 60, the couple said as they recounted the Wednesday night experience.
The McGraths are not alone in their suffering: Though the number of those living without heat is a hard number for officials to gauge, more than 9,000 dwellings remain without electricity in the city, according to data from the area's power companies.
“It’s rough, it’s very stressful, it’s very depressing. And you get the anxiety of not knowing when your work is going to be done and when your house is going to be back,” Scott, 45, said Thursday afternoon, taking a break from working on the electrical wiring in his home. “You have emotional-like panic attacks in your head, you’re thinking of what you have to do next to make sure your family don’t die or get sick with the flu and stuff … you can’t be exposed outdoors all day and this is being exposed outdoors.”
Some 20,000 residential buildings in the city were left with some damage or disruption to their utilities after Sandy. A city program, mostly funded by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, had restored utility services and provided replacement equipment to more than 11,800 residences as of Jan. 21, while some 7,000 are awaiting help. Work on about 1,900 dwellings is under way.
The McGraths moved back in two weeks after the storm, but they only got heat on Jan. 2. Before then, they had been running nine to a dozen electric heaters off two generators at a cost of $80 a day. Until this weekend, they had to take showers and use the toilet at a neighbor’s home.
Miranda Leitsinger / NBC News
Dee Young-McGrath and her husband, Scott McGrath, stand Thursday in the first floor of their gutted home where the temperature dropped to just under 20 degrees the night before. It's hard to get the rebuilding done in such cold weather, they said.
“My poor daughter is sick in bed right now running a fever and I have to have an electric heater running for her besides my heat,” he said of Crystal, 21, a meter reader for one of the city’s power providers, Con Edison of New York. Upstairs the thermostat showed it was 60 degrees. “It’s pretty sad and she’s wrapped up in two blankets.”
Although the McGraths’ home received help from the Rapid Repairs program, a first-of-its-kind collaboration between FEMA and local agencies, Scott said the program’s subcontractors had botched the installation work, with leaks springing in the pipes when the boiler was turned on. His brother, a plumber, fixed the problems.
They got electricity earlier, on Christmas Eve. But the work done by Rapid Repairs was “basic,” Scott said, leaving them with few outlets, such as just two in the kitchen. He was installing more outlets on Thursday before eventually putting up insulation and dry wall.
The couple has done almost all of the repair work on their own, finishing the bathroom downstairs, with a shower and toilet, this weekend. Though it was an achievement they had looked forward to, the timing couldn’t have been worse with the onset of the subzero temps this week.
“It is completely unbearable to step foot out of my bedroom,” said Dee Young-McGrath, 42. “It’s like torture to sit on an ice-cold toilet. And the shower, I mean, we have holes in the wall back there … it’s just excruciating.”
The couple, who have lived in the home for 10 years, said they stayed for several reasons, including that FEMA housing options were either too far away or in troubled city neighborhoods, and many places wouldn’t take dogs. They have a 10-year-old dog, Brownie, a chocolate lab and border collie mix.
“Their (FEMA) answer was to tell me to put my dog in a shelter. That is my family. … I’d rather sleep in my car before I put my dog in a shelter,” Scott said as he called a tail-wagging Brownie “Daddy’s little girl.”
They also stayed since it's their home and because they’d heard stories of vandalism.
“Whatever I have left, I want to keep,” he said. “You stay here to protect your property, what’s left.”
Though the days are long and dark for them, there was a little levity when Katie jokingly offered a reporter a cold drink. One wall on the first floor is lined with bottles of water, a two-liter orange soda and a few energy drinks.
Katie said they were lucky to have a roof over their heads when others still did not and were sheltering at warming centers, but they both said the stress and depression has been great.
Scott said on some days he could not motivate himself to get out of bed and his hands would tremble when he was overcome with anxiety. They have been given sick leave from their jobs at Con Edison, where he is an investigative inspector and she an instructor, due to the emotional toll. The cold, with a forecast that it may snow on Friday or over the weekend, is making it even worse.
“I have … panic attacks, anxiety at night, wondering what’s going to happen to my house. You know, running electric heaters, I start to panic, thinking that I’m going to cause a fire,” Scott said, noting he also worried about the possibility of pipes breaking in the freezing weather.
“This is not a way (for) a person to live,” he said. “It’s depressing to come here every day and you’re living in this house.”
NBC Nightly News' Katy Tur contributed to this report.
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I wake each morning and I can see my breath in the bedroom. I sit on an icy toilet also. I get dressed quickly and turn up the space heater to keep me warm while I light the woodstove to heat the rest of my home (keeping it going all night is too costly). I do not have running water, we haul it in. I go elsewhere for laundry and showers. I live in Alaska. I have more that some up here.
While I feel for these people, I know others who keep their homes in the 50's EVERY Winter except for one small room where they use a space heater to keep it in the 60's. There are THOUSANDS of Seniors who live like that every winter. To our shame, Venezuela's CITGO Oil Company has paid for heating oil for over 100,000 of them while our oil companies, which have QUADRUPLED their record profits from pre-2008, has spent $0 on them. One American Veteran said, "I almost froze to death fighting for my country in Korea: I never thought my country would let me freeze to death at home."
The_Mick speaks the sad truth!
Wow! All the bitching and whining of people who have an actual home. I don't even own a home and I've been homeless. We do what we have to do to survive. Plan ahead for the inevitable and just make do.
Val, how do you get to post here?
Frisby - - most libraries offer free internet on their computers for the public to use.
when will people realize that our government in its current state is useless...it is pumped up with endless amounts of money and these scoundrels do nothing but squander it ...while the people suffer these @!$%#s enjoy every perk they want....government was designed to work for the people...not for itself...
Great point horton! I believe the same thing!
This is a tragic situation for these people. My heart goes out to them and I hope that they will get more help soon.
What is wrong with you people being critical of this couple instead of compassion? Don't be so smug, see how you would react in such a situation and how well you can *suck it up.* This is not a murder story or of this couple hurting someone. It is a couple with children doing the best they can after Sandy hit them and how easy it is to dish out advice when you are not in their situation! Of course some of you have all the answers and would be back at your job the next day, living in a motel or *bad* area, putting your animals in shelters because motels won't accept them, and not worrying one bit about your home being vandalized while you are living elsewhere. Of course you know exactly what your insurance will cover-especially flood insurance which most homeowner policies don't cover-it is a separate policy. But of course, you know all that, your life if perfect, everything is all worked out in case mother nature destroys your home. You will be able to hire contractor's on a moments notice in spite of thousands of others who need the same repairs, and your home will be *all good* in a week and of course YOUR insurance will cover it all. No one will even botch any job done. Your animals too will be *safe* in a shelter. No worries.
Why be so mean to people suffering and doing the best they can? Would you feel the same if it were your relative-would you tell them to *suck it up?* Yeah, you probably would.
I was just thinking similar things katy katy.
Today I am having a quiet memorial at home for a friend who died in a house fire last week. Despite the fact he had been having a hard time for whatever the reason, he was trying to make the best of it. I couldn't imagine having told him to suck it up because it could be worse which is not the same as well if that's the worst thing that happens today it's a stellar day.
His concerns about a house fire are legitimate. Just as legitimate as staying at his home on his land and not being shipped some place else. Why can't he use the same resources on his home as opposed to someplace else and resources for his home ? That makes no sense to me at all because they are not having any health concerns keeping them from that being a workable option. I got the impression that was his concern, that his family's health will decline and the workability in that scenario ceases to be workable, not that he isn't working on repairs. His dog may be the thing that is his neutral sanity and yes they are family members not toys of convenience.
Several issues....
Had this happened on Bush's watch, we'd never here the end of it. But since it happened during the rule of the Dark Lord, nothing is said.
Then we have the issue of these people expecting Federal help when this storm is not a Federal issue. It is time that "regional" storms revert back to expectation of only state help. And better yet, you should have your own plan. If you can't deal with the ramifications of storms like this, MOVE!
These folks should be keeping the heat on their local officials.
When you live on the coast, you are STUPID - and you best have the best insurance you can buy. If you don't, I hope you freeze.
THERE IS NO MONEY! Your Dark Lord squandered several trillion and we now have to rescue America from his pathetic watch!
You're insane and off your meds. There is really nothing else to say.
Foreign aid received in millions of US dollars[1]
Country20072008
Israel
2,500.24
2,423.8
Afghanistan
3964.6
4865.08
Albania
306.09
385.66
Algeria
390.22
315.99
Angola
246.21
368.82
Anguilla
5.27
3.35
Antigua & Barbuda
7.38
8.22
Argentina
101.34
130.5
Armenia
350.06
302.63
Azerbaijan
225.25
235.09
Bangladesh
1514.59
2061.4
Barbados
17.51
4.83
Belarus
83.76
110.18
Belize
21.77
25.22
Benin
474.33
640.83
Bhutan
89.83
86.53
Bolivia
476.75
627.87
Bosnia-Herzegovina
452.54
482.44
Botswana
107.67
716.38
Brazil
321.2
460.36
Brunei
..
..
Burkina Faso
951.13
997.94
Burundi
475.34
508.5
Cambodia
674.52
742.81
Cameroon
1908.33
524.6
Cape Verde
165.17
218.54
Central African Republic
176.81
256.44
Chad
357.58
416.22
Chile
120.71
73.05
China
1486.84
1488.9
Taiwan
..
..
Colombia
722.82
972.01
Comoros
44.49
37.25
Congo, Dem. Rep.
1240.82
1648.32
Congo, Rep.
118.67
466.38
Costa Rica
58.15
66.12
Côte d'Ivoire
171.02
616.51
Croatia
162.91
397.47
Cuba
92.8
127.48
Djibouti
112.43
120.88
Dominica
19.41
21.86
Dominican Republic
123.12
152.64
Ecuador
217.29
230.61
Egypt
1107.16
1348.39
El Salvador
88.07
233.35
Equatorial Guinea
31.36
37.63
Eritrea
158.25
143.12
Ethiopia
2562.51
3327.46
Fiji
50.81
45.25
Gabon
51.18
54.5
Gambia
73.16
93.84
Georgia
380.14
887.71
Ghana
1153.94
1293.3
Grenada
23.05
33.04
Guatemala
454.38
536.03
Guinea
228.08
318.98
Guinea-Bissau
122.32
131.62
Guyana
127.85
165.53
Haiti
701.59
911.81
Honduras
464.34
564.33
India
1384
2107.65
Indonesia
295.68
125.21
Iran
102.36
98.36
Iraq
9185.37
9880.2
Jamaica
28.08
79.35
Jordan
529.07
742.22
Kazakhstan
204.2
332.55
Kenya
1322.51
1360.44
Kiribati
26.96
26.9
North Korea
99.29
217.69
Kyrgyzstan
274.56
359.93
Laos
396.12
495.6
Lebanon
955.93
1075.93
Liberia
700.79
1250.37
Lesotho
128.78
143.4
Libya
19.41
60.15
Macedonia
200.86
220.54
Madagascar
894.11
841.42
Malawi
742.08
912.67
Malaysia
200.04
158.21
Maldives
37.37
54.26
Mali
1019.84
963.8
Marshall Islands
52.12
53.22
Mauritania
341.89
310.68
Mauritius
68.87
109.65
Mayotte
407.24
475.3
Mexico
113.26
149.01
Micronesia, Federated States of
114.88
94.14
Moldova
266.99
298.75
Mongolia
238.63
246.46
Montenegro
105.72
106.3
Montserrat
36.33
34.74
Morocco
1072.69
1216.87
Mozambique
1778.05
1993.78
Myanmar
197.73
533.5
Namibia
217.42
206.82
Nauru
25.56
31.24
Nepal
608.75
716.31
Nicaragua
840.34
740.72
Niger
541.75
541.75
Nigeria
1956.18
1289.78
Niue
14.77
18.04
Oman
-31.3
31.92
Pakistan
2243.75
1539.36
Palau
22.34
42.94
Palestine
1872.3
2592.75
Panama
-135.01
28.54
Papua New Guinea
324.45
304.38
Paraguay
107.95
133.54
Peru
259.89
465.52
Philippines
646.52
60.89
Rwanda
722.22
930.6
Samoa
37.47
39.46
São Tomé and Príncipe
35.98
47.03
Senegal
872.07
1057.72
Serbia
838.89
1046.67
Seychelles
8.73
12.08
Sierra Leone
545.29
366.82
Solomon Islands
246.05
224.32
Somalia
384.14
758.26
South Africa
807.33
1124.94
Sri Lanka
612.69
730.43
Saint Helena
44.09
65.95
St. Kitts & Nevis
3.44
46.24
St. Lucia
19.44
19.09
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
65.85
26.81
Yugoslavia (ex)
54.94
51.02
Sudan
2111.51
2383.58
Suriname
150.87
101.5
Swaziland
50.67
67.38
Syria
83.31
136.24
Tanzania
2818.45
2330.72
Thailand
-312.07
-620.53
Timor-Leste
278.27
277.54
Togo
121.32
329.64
Tokelau
12.89
21.43
Tonga
30.86
25.71
Trinidad & Tobago
20.8
20.8
Tunisia
321.16
478.82
Turkey
791.89
2023.71
Turkmenistan
28.48
18.13
Tuvalu
11.74
16.62
Uganda
1736.26
1656.76
Ukraine
420.24
617.57
Uzbekistan
169.76
187.25
Vanuatu
56.69
91.67
Venezuela
77.76
59.22
Vietnam
1530.92
1680.76
Wallis and Futuna
117.11
130.53
Yemen
236.17
305.47
Zambia
998.26
1085.91
Zimbabwe
478.67
611.02
North of Sahara, regional
281.05
270.03
South of Sahara, regional
1697.66
2763.45
Africa, regional
1452.84
1321.37
North and Central America, regional
330.94
394.67
South America, regional
188.45
268.21
America, regional
559.77
1228.34
Middle East, regional
1465.67
4992.01
Central Asia, regional
248.58
283.96
South Asia, regional
104.61
156.97
South and Central Asia, regional
194.74
209.65
Far East Asia, regional
197.28
204.56
Asia, regional
989.94
1306.08
Europe, regional
500.83
829.95
Oceania, regional
154.85
363.61
West Indies, regional
68.43
92.41
[2]
Your post might have more impact if it were kept to a readable number of lines . . . could you not have posted the few that were the most "impressive" and then referred us to the table where you got the numbers?
There is no money for these people because Michelle is too busy taking vacations! "First lady Michelle Obama’s ski trip to Aspen, Colorado on President’s Day
weekend with her two daughters cost taxpayers at least $83,182.99, part of almost $1 million of taxpayer money that Mrs. Obama has spent on three trips alone. A trip to Spain in 2010 by Michelle Obama, family, and staff cost taxpayers $467,585 and a trip by the First Lady and family to South Africa and Botswana
last year cost $424,142 for the flight and crew alone." Then they had the nerve to go on another vacation to Hawaii for the holidays while all the people affected by Hurricane Sandy are suffering. While they basked on warm sandy beaches people back home were freezing, trying their best to make the most of Christmas. How many of you went without food while they had their feasts and living it up on your dollar?
Now lets get the figures for Bushies oil wars..
To quote the words of the most brilliant woman to have ever walked on the planet, "What does that matter now?"
But, but Bambi said it would be all right. He told us he would do everything in his power to get these people back together. Schmuck Schumer said much the same thing. You mean they are both lying politicians? It wasn't true? People are still without assistance all this time later?
You left out the "Allah" part ... The song "(Formerly) America", changed by executive order. ©2013
Nobody forced them to live where they chose to live. They made the decision. Now they must live the consequences of their choices. Nothing wrong with that. One of the numerous problems in USS [sic] society is that no one is held accountable for anything. If you make dumb moves, then you should live with the fallout, not a bailout.
Experience dictates living on/near water is a precursor to be flooded out of your home/life. Which part of chaotic nature don't you all understand?
There are no guarantees in life ... except higher & more taxes, failure of the fed.gov & the US dollar and death. ©2013
It is insulting that lame stream media is using their position force the fed.gov to spend taxpayer dollars on problems are individual not national. A: Get real. Move to higher ground.
or just move to Israel to enjoy your US tax dollars there
You B & G, you are a self described piece of work, class act and overall jerk aren't you. You should move somewhere else.
Wow frisbydog!! Name calling from you!! Shocking,I told you it's fine for you to call names hypocrite,typical lefty.
That is 1 tough family.
Wow, hang in there all you people who are suffering from Sandy. There is always hope. Thats the problem with this country,the governments backs are turned to anyone who is in need.Greedy and selfish.These people would get help quicker if they lived in a foreign country.Maybe everyone in the white house should trade places with the Sandy victims and see how they like living like that.They all need to have to suffer what other Americans are suffering every day.Ugh!!Instead of living the good life .
I don't understand the Rapid Response thing. Are they contractors that just wing it and repair as they see it, in cheap fashion? Or are they using schematics and blue prints according to how the property should be set up? Sounds like many future problems waiting to happen for this family and many others.
Bottom line is our shore in Jersey was hit just as hard, yet help and repairs are well under way. Our governor has done an excellent job in getting the state the help we need. The mayor of Staten Island is a bum and worthless, and this is why these poor people are still suffering.
I would have moved into a cheap motel for now though.
Nobody REALLY expected FEMA, a typical govt. agency, to do any better, did they? Like Henry Ford said, anyone who thinks they can live well and prosper with the government taking care of them should take another look at the American Indian.
Hey Denver Bill - Please provide the name and number of an $80 hotel in Brooklyn, Staten Island or anywhere in NYC. Maybe back in the woods where you live there's a motel 8, not in NY. And he needs to be near his job so he can continue to work and pay taxes. And to the nit wit who keeps their house at 60 degrees, maybe you still have some drywall and insulation so the wind is not howling through the uninsulated walls and floors. Get a grip you heartless morons. I have seen the devastation in NY. FEMA is trying to help but it takes time. These working-class folks need voices like Al Sharpton and Jessie Jackson like the victims of Katrina had. These people are used to taking care of themselves and don't know how to yell and scream to get help. Their problem remains relatively unnoticed.
It seems an Obama hug and a promise doesn't keep one warm...
I really feel badly for these folks. I went with a volunteer crew to help some people disassemble their home - As I was looking at the work ahead, I wondered if they wouldn't be better off just walking away and letting the mortgage company own the mess. With a good apartment, they would be warm and comfortable. As it is, they've got more work than you can imagine, battles with insurance companies, battles to get financing, additional debt, and an eternity of night and weekend work. It's just all consuming of their lives for the foreseeable future.
Kudos to those that can do the restoration work themselves, but yeah, in those temps it becomes survival time.
aszgh
I guess these guys had no insurance so they want everything paid for by the taxpayer at the federal level? The article makes it sound criminal that they have had to do some of their own repairs. So you have home owners with a wreck of a home, no insurance, and our reasoning is that taxpayers should rebuild for them so when the next hurricane blows threw we can do it again?
The lame stream media is always finding the sympathy cases attempting to work the reader in to a teary eyed girl scouts and never present the facts: TAXPAYERS ARE BEING USED TO BAILOUT THE INEPT, MOST OF THE "VICTIMS" ARE TOO INEPT TO EVEN HELP THEMSELVES, AND AMERICANS IN GENERAL HAVE BECOME A BUNCH OF SNIVELING, SELF-ENTITLED PARASITES. So much for the american "I can do" attitude, now it the american "I can mooch" attitude.
Just wondering,do they have home insurance? People should not be allowed to buy a house without buying insurance.
Almost 50-60% of the homes did not have flood insurance and that is not required most of the time just regular insurance.
This is unacceptable!! What the hell is going on??
those family's in Syria must really have it nice. Americans